Christ the King... Do you submit to His authority? 23rd November 2025

2025  11  23  Christ the King 

• Jeremiah 23:1-6  Luke 1:68-79    Colossians 1:11-20     Luke 23:33-43

 

Living in Australia, we are a little distanced from the King and the royal family, and certainly, modern royalty plays a different role to what it has in the past.  Today we are celebrating Christ the King.  What does it mean to have Christ as King?   What does it mean to have God as King?  More importantly, is Jesus our King?

 

To give you an overview of Kingship in the context of the Bible, I’d like you to cast you mind back to the stories about when Israel was in slavery in Egypt. God saved them by mighty works and by parting the sea they escaped and crossed over into the desert.  At this time those people recognised that God was their saviour, but he wasn’t their King.  Many of them didn’t really know God, and they had been brought up with the influence of their Egyptian culture, who had many gods and most of them were tyrants who needed appeasing and then a tit for tat, kind of relationship existed whereby the people would do something for the god and the god would in turn reward them.  This is still how people sometimes view our God – but it isn’t the way that God works.  Our God gives, and rescues and is gracious to us even when we don’t deserve it.

 

Through the time in the desert God showed himself to be holy and powerful.  He gave them water from a rock and fed them with bread from heaven.  Eventually they entered the promised land, and after some time they cried out that they wanted to have a King.

 

In the time of the prophet Samuel, it was God leading the people, through his faithful prophets and judges, but Samuel was getting on in years and the people demanded to have a King.  Samuel saw it as a rejection of himself and was upset, but God told Samuel, that it was actually God who the people were rejecting.  So, God, who always respects our free will, gave the people what they wanted; Saul, son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin was anointed King.  Saul led the people into victory over their enemies, but he didn’t always follow God’s ways – in all honesty, he is actually a lot like all of us.  Saul reacted to public opinion, worried about what people thought of him and because of this, he didn’t put God first in his life.  God then had Samuel anoint David, son of Jesse of the tribe of Judah.

 

David, the youngest in his family, had been a shepherd.  He understood looking after a kingdom to be like looking after his sheep.  And he was a good shepherd.  More than anything, he knew that all things were possible for the person who trusted in God.  It was him who wrote most of our psalms, including, “The Lord is my shepherd.”   King, David was both a spiritual leader who governed the land, and a mighty warrior King.  This blend of priestly qualities and Kingship would be a prophet sign of the Kingship of Jesus.  The kingly succession went from David to David’s son, then to his son… and so on.  However, many of these descendants were nothing like David.   Finally at the time of Exile the descendant of David who was king, was Zedekiah.  His name means, ‘Righteousness is the Lord.’  In the prophecy from Jeremiah that we read today we have a play on the name of King Zedekiah.  Jeremiah declares that God will raise up a righteous branch, and he declares, “And this is the name by which he will be called: "The LORD is our righteousness." (LORD being in capital letters, indicating that LORD is God Almighty)

 

While using the current King’s name to make this play on words, the statement shifts the kingship to God and indicates the deity (the divinity) of the Messiah.  Indicating that Jesus is God -and King.  I wonder if you have ever considered the phrase at the end of the Christmas Carol, Silent Night.  It says, “Jesus, Lord at thy birth”.  This phrase refers to the fact of Jesus’ divinity at his birth, and his kingship.  Also in the song, We Three Kings are the word, “Born a King on Bethlehem's plain, Gold I bring to crown Him again.  King for ever, ceasing never.  Over us all to reign.” The Israelites while wandering in the desert, had to learn to accept the Kingship of God – and many did, and many did not.  It was a 40 year long journey for them.  How long, do you think, will it take us? 

 

This Kingship is different from what we expect, therefore, there are some who, like the thief on the cross, reject Christ as King.  After all- here is our mighty King, nailed to the cross!  How can this be “Yahweh Tsidkenu” – which is the original Hebrew phrase in Jeremiah’s prophecy, meaning - The LORD our righteousness”?

 

The letter to the Colossians tells us that the fullness of God dwells in Jesus.  He is our King, but he is also our saviour.  He is the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for us.  Colossians also tells us; “He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”  We certainly need a saviour!  Just look around at the world.  Ask the person down the street and they will tell you that they are a good person…. But they will point the finger at someone else and tell you that person is not! – yet that person will think that they are actually really good.  What is the truth of the matter?  TRULY we need a saviour!  It seems to go against human nature to admit our need for a saviour, and certainly, it goes against our nature to accept Christ to be our King.  This goes right back to the garden of Eden – the original sin – It was to reject the authority of God and take action to be our own God…. Be our own authority.

 

Christ showed us a different kind of Kingship to what anyone expects.  He is the Good Shepherd who laid down His life.  We are told in Colossians that he was before all things and in him all things hold together.  We know from the Gospel of John that the world was created through him.  In case you aren’t sure where Christ was back in the beginning of the book of Genesis when God created, it was when God spoke.  Jesus is the word of God.  Throughout the Old Testament the WORD of God is mentioned often, then John’s Gospel tells us that the WORD became flesh and dwelt among us.

 

From Heaven you came helpless babe… is our song, The Servant King.  Jesus, though King, came to serve and give his life.  While on the cross, he was mocked.  It is written in the scriptures, Deuteronomy 21:23, that cursed is he that hangs on a tree.  Jesus, nailed to the tree (cross) the letter to the Galatians explains, became a curse for us, thereby redeeming us from the curse of the law – the perfect law of God that none of us can keep.

 

Christ lived as a perfect human.  He was LORD and King from his birth.  The gifts the wise men brought also were prophetic declarations – Gold for the King, Frankincense declaring his deity and Myrrh to signify that he would die sacrificially.  This KING would be the Good Shepherd who laid down his life for the sheep.  All that this King would do, would be for the benefit of his people.  All that Jesus accomplished for us was because God so loved the world that he sent his only son, so that whoever believes in him would not perish, but have eternal life.  This is our King, our servant King – he calls us now… – presented with these facts the only response should be to bring our lives as a daily offering of worship … to the servant King.  Come let us worship!

 

We aren’t perfect and will continue in our fallibility all the years we are in this frail human flesh, yet we acknowledge this and strive to serve our King.  His ways are perfect.  His laws are perfect and what’s more he loved us and gave his life for us.  We can trust our lives to him and accept his authority because he loves us so completely.  Our lives are more precious to him than they are even to ourselves – this is why he willingly came and died to make restitution for sin.  There truly is nothing left but to bow before his majesty -  Come, let us worship.

Things are sure to get bumpy! 16th November 2025 Proper 28 year C

2025  11  16   Proper 28 (33)

Isaiah 65:17-25 and Isaiah 12    2 Thessalonians 3:6-13    Luke 21:5-19

Things are surely going to get bumpy!

Last week, through our reading from the prophet, Haggai, we were encouraged to make the house of the Lord a priority, and to build the house of the Lord.  This might seem like a strange priority when we hear Jesus talk about the temple being torn down this week.  However, we are called to build a house of God, whose walls are not made of brick and wood, but made from the precious gems who are you, me and people who are “out there….”, who are not yet part of our church, but who God is calling to be part of his Kingdom. 

 

This week we again, hear about things to come – the promise of new Heavens and a new Earth.   Isaiah prophecies; “For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.”  A promise of a glorious future, and although this was written approximately five centuries before Christ, it was a prophecy that has been reiterated and still is yet to be fulfilled.

 

At each service we declare the mystery of faith; Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.  I suspect that we sometimes forget this last part; Christ will come again.  In fact, I think that many people brought up in the faith who stop coming to church forget the first two statements as well.  “Christ has died”, is a statement that declares an undeniable fact.  Jesus is recorded in history, by non-Christian historians, as a person who performed great deeds and was crucified.  I guarantee that if we went down the street and asked people, most would not realize the authenticity and reliability of this information. 

 

“Christ is risen”, is a statement that declares a whole other incredible factor, upon which our faith stands.  We can be assured that we are forgiven our sins by God the father, because Jesus is the lamb of God who willingly gave himself for that purpose.  We wouldn’t be sure we could believe this, if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, proving that he has power and authority over death, and proving his divinity…. He is God!  This fact, while not recorded by non-Christian historians, was written about in the New Testament and it says that after Jesus rose, he appeared to over 500 people and these people were still alive at the time it was written, and able to testify to the fact.

 

“Christ will come again,” is a somewhat mysterious statement that will probably leave most of us bewildered, but it just might be the crucial part of our faith.  Actually, it is all crucial, but when people are wanting to know what life is all about, and feeling perhaps a little hopeless or depressed about the state of the world, it could just be, that this is because they, and sometimes we, are ignorant of, or forgotten our origins in God, and who we are in God, and our future reality in God.

 

The ancient Israelites who had been in exile, were exactly the same, in their lost identity.  These people were chosen by God, but while being in exile, a new generation had grown up who heard the stories, but they heard them as someone else’s story.  They, and we, need to experience our own story, that confirms who we are in God. 

 

What we believe impacts our actions and our outlook on life.  If we believe there is no God and at the end we simply cease to be, we have no real reason to push through the hard times.  We have no real value in life beyond its usefulness to how it makes us feel. 

 

As Christians, we believe that we were purposely formed from the time of our conception.  God had a part in our formation in the womb.  Ephesians 2:10 tells us, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”  God has good works prepared for us to do here and now, and in the future.  Jesus will come again, and there will be new heavens and a new earth, when God restores all things in harmony and peace.  We believe that there is a purpose in our lives here and now, but there is even more in eternity.  The Bible gives us hints, but most of it is a mystery, as 1 Corinthians 2:9 tells us; ““What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”— the things God has prepared for those who love him. “

 

Isaiah had a word from God that was an encouragement to the exiled Jewish people.  The prophecy has elements that are for the distant future and there are elements that were for the people of that current time.  Those people needed to know that God had everything in his plan.  They needed to know that they were purposefully created and chosen by God and that God had prepared a future for them…. A good and wonderful future.  They needed to know this, and so do we.  We need to know that we are God’s precious and chosen creation, purposely put together in our mother’s womb.  Ephesians 1:4 tells us that God predestined us. It says, “For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.  In love he predestined us for adoption as sons…”

 

God created.  We turned away.  God sent Jesus to redeem us.  We are redeemed, but that isn’t the end of the story.  There will be a time that God will bring everything under his control and His Kingdom will come. The new heaven and new earth is the ultimate, restored creation where God will dwell fully with His people forever, free from sin, suffering, and death. This new reality will involve a renewed, glorified physical existence for believers, not a purely spiritual one, where heaven and earth are united. This includes experiencing God's presence intimately, seeing Him face-to-face, and living in harmony with Him, each other, and all of creation.  Does knowing this give us the resilience needed for facing the problems of today?  Surely it does!  We believe that there is ultimate good in our future and these trials we experience are momentary in comparison to eternity.

 

We need to know that God has secured a future for us, not just so that we can live with hope when we are faced with everyday trials.  We need to know that we have a future which is sure and secure, and we need to know that we know that we know….. and we need to be so sure and assured of it and of the glorious future that it is, that we can truly rejoice in that future here and now and through every trial that might come, because Jesus has warned us, between now and his coming again the times are going to get “Bumpy”. 

 

Our Gospel reading spells this out.  Jesus tells us that there will be wars, insurrections, earthquakes, famines and wonderous signs in the sky.  Also, we are warned that there will be many who will come in Jesus’ name, saying that the time is near.  Jesus warns us to not be led astray.

 

Possibly the most upsetting thing in our readings today is this part in the Gospel about being betrayed by parents, siblings and relatives and being hated because of the name of Jesus.  The early Christians faced these trials.

 

I thought I would do a google search to see what Christians are currently being persecuted and where.  Firstly, AI affirmed that many Christians are being persecuted.  What surprised me, was that some countries whose main religion is Christianity are listed as places of extreme persecution for being Christian.  One of these is Mexico and a few places nearby such as Columbia.  This is a quote from a man in Columbia: “I'm not close to my brother, nor to my sister, and I'm estranged from my brother-in-law. Because you preach the gospel, you are no longer considered part of the family. And because you preach, you also lose the right to work in the community. I no longer have the right to work because, as a Christian, I have lost their trust.” David, an indigenous believer in Colombia.

 

If these countries with a strong history of Christianity can reach a point where there is persecution for being a Christian, we need to realize that we could well find ourselves in the same position in our country in the future, and we need to pray and thank God for the freedom we still have.  

 

Today, we take stock and consider our faith in the reality of the world situation, where our Christian brothers and sisters are being persecuted.  If push comes to shove, and we are placed in this situation, will we be able to stand and not be led astray?  Jesus says that he will give us wisdom that none of our opponents will be able to withstand or contradict.  Jesus says some will be put to death, yet not a hair on our head will perish.  The assurance that not a hair on our head will perish seems a strange thing to say considering that some will be put to death, but Jesus is talking about our eternal life…. A reality that is deeper and even more precious than this life.

 

In the light of all this, how should we be living while things are good and safe?  Our letter to the Thessalonians deals with this.  What happens when things are good, is that we forget all that God has done for us and we grumble about things that really don’t matter in the light of eternity – and this includes me!

 

Our challenge today is to live in the reality of the incredible future that God has planned for us.  Our Christian brothers and sisters who stand firm in the faith regardless of persecution, do so, because they have experienced the love of God and know that he has an eternal future secured for us, and nothing else compares.  The key to standing firm is in knowing Jesus and knowing God’s love.  Truly, nothing compares to this.

Build the church Proper 27 Year C 9th November 2025

2025  11  09   Year C  Proper 27 (32)

Haggai 1:15b-  2:9     Psalm 145:1-5, 17-21    2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17     Luke 20:27-40

 

Who here remembers the days of the former glory?  When I was a young adult I remember a time of incredible life in the church.  The different Christian churches got together and had an event called IT – Interdenominational Thing!  We had a parade through town of groups from the churches who competed against each other in fun games, followed by a concert where we, the local, inexperienced and very amateur talents, sang and danced and thoroughly enjoyed the adventure.   

 

In each of our denominations, our own churches hosted regular camps, coffee nights, and events like spirituality in the pub.  Many people got behind the events and many more came and enjoyed them.  There were also many travelling evangelists who came to speak either in church or at a tent ministry, where the call for prayer at the end saw line ups of people a mile long – almost.  I was a member of the local Catholic church back then, and a girl from the Anglican Church came to me and asked me and the band from our church to provide the music for a Youth Service at Holy Trinity.  She had a desire for the church in the center of town to be a host for youth to come to know Christ and the saving message of God.  My music group provided the music for the one event, and I don’t know if anything happened after that.  Wow!  I do remember the days of the former glory of the church.  But what happened after that?  I left town, so did others and I came back to a different scene.

 

We can very easily parallel our church story with the Israelites to whom the prophet Haggai wrote.  We have had good times of life and full churches and times when all of society was blessed because most people either were Christian or held to Christian values and Christian values produce a healthy and wholesome community.  The times... they are a changing!  All churches have felt the pain of decline and experienced the consequences of the sins of some in the church.  I wonder, do you remember the former glory days of the church?

 

Haggai ministered in 520 BC.  He identifies the date by the 2^nd year of the reign of Darius.  Darius was the Persian King who ruled over the empire after Israel had been sent into exile.  Some exiled Jews had returned to their homeland.  During this time, the Temple in Jerusalem was in ruins, but King Darius allowed for the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem, issuing a decree that supported the project after it had been halted by opposition.  Darius discovered that his predecessor, Cyrus the Great, had issued a decree authorizing the work.  Darius not only ordered the construction to continue but also mandated that the expenses be paid from the royal treasury and that no one interfere with the process.  This is actually an amazing miracle.  An outsider, with immense authority and power, recognises the value in the Temple being rebuilt and even pays for this to happen.  I often think that Street Chaplaincy is like this; we struggled for 3 ½ years and then the government saw the value in what we were doing and now we have a contract to provide that service and they pay us to do so.

 

Haggai was the prophet whose word from God provided the catalyst for the rebuilding of the Second Temple in Jerusalem by delivering God's message to the Jewish community.  This encouraged the Jewish governor and priest to seek the permission to continue the work on the temple.

 

What is going on with Haggai and the people, is deeper than simply rebuilding a building.  We are often challenged to understand that the church is actually the people, and the building is there as a sacred space for our gathering, however, it is the people meeting with God that makes it church.  The Jewish people had always known that God was too big to be contained to any earthly dwelling, but these people had been in exile, and they were now being ruled by a foreigner, and they were somewhat lost, not sure where “home” was and who they were and where they belonged.  A whole new generation or two had grown up in exile and knew nothing of their homeland.  They were losing their identity and sense of uniqueness.  They needed to know that they belonged to God.  They were God’s chosen nation, regardless of where they were and what was happening, temple or not, however, they needed to be reminded of this, and reminded, to give honour to God first and foremost is what we are all called to do.  The project of rebuilding the Temple, and their working together made the house of God their priority.  It confirmed to themselves, and showed the world, that they were the people of God.  This was the point of the message from Haggai.

 

The house of the Lord needs to be built.  It needs to be first priority.  In our modern life, the house of God needs to be OUR first priority, but it’s walls are not made of brick or wood.  The house of God is made from precious gems.  Those Gems are Anthony, Sandra, Louise, Caleb, etc…. These are you and me, and the people who need to be built into our church, but as yet, they aren’t here - They are “out there”.

 

Do you remember the former Glory?  This story from Haggai is not just for the people back from exile in 520 BC, but it is also for us.  take courage, all you people, says the LORD; work, for I am with you, says the LORD of hosts, and His Holy Spirit is with us.  Notice that word, “WORK” ?  God won’t just built the church without us doing our part….  We need to work at it.  “Take courage”, he says – be encouraged because God is calling us now to work with him to build His house.  I truly believe this, and it will be an amazing move of God’s Spirit to accomplish it, and it will be a wonder to all who witness it.  God’s Spirit will accomplish it, but we need to do our part – our WORK.

 

Most importantly we are not building the church so that we have a bigger organization.   We are building the church of God because building the Temple of God is something we are called to make a priority.  It is a call from God.  The reason that God calls us to do this is because he loves…. Anthony, Sandra, Louise and Caleb… etc…  AND when these people are built into his house, they (and we) learn about God’s love and goodness, and we learn that His ways are the ways of true life and true blessing.  Just as when we make rules for our own children to prosper them and keep them safe, God’s ways are for our good also.

 

There are often many conflicting ideas about God, spirituality and life.  We even have spiritual expos where every idea except the truth is presented to a group of people who have a sense that there IS a spiritual realm, and they seem keen to know how the spiritual world works.  In the times of Jesus there were also many conflicting ideas about the spiritual realm, but he addresses some of these and makes some things very clear; Firstly, there IS a resurrection.  We do not die and become Angels.  I just had to make that clear, as I have heard people talking about deceased loved ones as being and Angel.  We are CHILDREN of God and remain children of God.  But, as Jesus said, we are LIKE Angels in that we cannot die anymore. 

 

Jesus was confronted by a group who wanted to know whose husband the woman would be, who had married each brother.  Jesus clarifies that “Those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage”.  He reminds them and us that when God spoke to Moses, he revealed himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  We understand from the text that these people are alive, meaning that they are truly alive and in heaven with God.   Heaven is God’s spiritual realm.  We are living in this physical realm, and our vision is limited to the physical…. We are all near sighted.  There is more that is real, and we can’t yet see it.

 

Saint Paul explains some more of God’s plan when he talks about the coming of the Lord and us being gathered together to him.  Jesus himself told us that he will come again, as did the Angels who spoke to those who were there when Jesus ascended to Heaven.  At each service we declare that Christ has died, is risen and will come again.  The early Christians thought that this would be in their lifetime.  Obviously, that is not God’s plan, but it is God’s plan and advice that we live as though he will come in our lifetime, because for someone, it will be in their lifetime and that may well be us.  Regardless of all the theories and ideas, we need to know God well enough to not be shaken or alarmed.  Saint Paul tells us that the rebellion comes first and the lawless one will be revealed, who decares himself to be God.  This to me, indicates that we are in for a bumpy ride and we are told to stand firm and hold fast to what has been taught through the scriptures.

 

We are certainly living in a time of unrest.  Some might even describe this time as one of rebellion. Whether it is or it isn’t should change who we are or what we do.  We are to stand firm in our faith.  Stand firm on the word of God.  Stand firm on our priority to build the house of God.  We have a job to do, and we need to take courage and work. Now is the time for restoration. 

 

We have a word from God today.  A word of hope and encouragement in the year of hope 25.  That word is this; “Once again, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land, and I will shake all the nations, so that the treasure of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with splendour, says the LORD of hosts.  The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the LORD of hosts.  The latter splendour of this house shall be greater than the former, says the LORD of hosts, and in this place I will give prosperity, says the LORD of hosts."

 

You and I are the silver and gold, refined by God and built into the church, but there are others…. Anthony, Sandra, Louise and Caleb.  They are precious gems that God requires for his temple.  Let us make an agreement with God, to work with him in building this house of God.  Let us ask him for his guidance and then let us listen to hear his direction….  Lord God, we want to bring the good news of your love to all.  Help us to do this.  Show us the way and give us the courage to follow through, so that those who are precious may be built into the house of God.  In Jesus name we pray.  Amen.